


Lost & Found

by katikat



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Episode Related, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Missing Scene
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-30
Updated: 2018-01-30
Packaged: 2019-03-11 11:28:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13523295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katikat/pseuds/katikat
Summary: We saw Mac escape from Murdoc. But how did he get back to the headquarters? Or, a missing scene from ep 204. Jack’s POV. (Unbeta'd)





	Lost & Found

The ride back from the warehouse is quiet. They left the bodies for the local cops to find, a “concerned citizen” calling in a shootout in the neighborhood. It’ll become one of those cases that never get solved, the cops will never make the connection between the two goons, shot execution style, and an international assassin like Murdoc. Or the kidnapping of one Angus MacGyver…

When they arrive at Mac’s house, Bozer stumbles out of the car with his shoulders slumped dejectedly and slowly drags himself back inside. Cage gets out, too, then, Jack as the last. He stands there for a moment, holding the door of his beloved car open, his jaw clenched and eyes blazing with fury. And then he slams the door shut so hard it rings like a shot.

Cage looks at him with sympathy. “Jack…” she starts saying but he cuts her off.

“Don’t,” Jack snaps quietly, shaking his head. “Just…  _don’t_.”

He heads back in, face grim, back ramrod straight. Inside, everybody avoids looking at him. Good, he doesn’t feel like talking unless  _someone_ has  _something_ for him,  _some_ clue that would tell him where to look next. Obviously they don’t. And so he crosses the short hallway and steps out onto the back porch where forensics already finished gathering their evidence.

And then he stands there, at the railing, staring straight out across the city. Somewhere down there, hopefully still within reach, that lunatic’s holding Jack’s…  _what_? Best friend? Brother? Son? Charge? Or, in clinical terms, the asset he promised - no,  _swore_! - to protect? He doesn’t know how to describe Mac because he’s all of that and  _more_ to Jack. For seven years the kid’s been at the center of Jack’s universe and now, with Mac gone, Jack feels like he can’t breathe right, as if his whole world shrank.

There’re steps behind him, thumping softly on the wood and coming closer. He doesn’t even have to look to know it’s Matty. He doesn’t want to listen to empty reassurances, though, to platitudes with no substance behind them, to promises he knows can’t be given or kept.

But Matty doesn’t say anything at all to him. She just stands there, by his side, offering silent support. And that’s what finally gets him talking.

“We had a fight, me and Mac, back in Paris,” Jack says, still staring out. “It was stupid. We got annoyed with each other, because of-of silly, unimportant things. And he said something that really hurt me.” He shakes his head. “I know that he didn’t mean it like that, I know that  _now_. And I would’ve realized it back then, too, if only I pulled my head outta my ass - there’s no one less judgmental than Mac, no one. But I allowed my hurt feelings to get the better of me.”

Jack pauses for a moment before continuing. “And when he called me, I didn’t pick up. I put him straight to voice mail. Again. And again. Six times. He had to call me six times before I finally listened to the messages he left me - he said I was right and he wanted to apologize, it was everything I wanted to hear. But I still waited, I didn’t come immediately, I wanted him to feel bad, at least a little, for a little while. And when I finally arrived here… he was gone, taken.”

He takes a shuddery breath. “If only I swallowed my pride and came when he called me the first time, if only I–”

“Don’t do that, Jack,” Matty stops him softly, voice very kind. “Hindsight’s always 20-20.”

Jack finally looks down at her and his throat feels very thick when he says, “Matty, we have no clue where he is, what Murdoc might’ve done to him already. That fight, it might’ve been the last time we spoke. We fought because I thought he was being reckless - and then  _I_ failed  _him_!”

Matty shakes her head adamantly. “Jack, you didn’t–!” She’s interrupted by Jack’s cellphone ringing.

Sighing, Jack pulls his phone out of his pocket and checks the caller ID: unknown number. Frowning, he picks up. “Hello?” he asks.

“Jack…”

_Mac!_

“Mac?” Jack exclaims, eyes widening and heart hammering hard. “Where are you? Are you okay? Are you safe?”

There’s a little pause. “I-I… don’t know,” Mac replies haltingly. “I got away but… hm, I’m a little…  _foggy_. I don’t know-I don’t know where I am.”

“Alright, buddy. Take it slow,” Jack tells him kindly. “Where are you calling from? Whose phone is this?”

There’s some noise in the background, cars driving by, people talking. Then Mac replies, “I’m outside, got out through a manhole… in the street. There’s… some nice lady here let me borrow her phone.”

“Good, that’s good. Would you let me talk to her for a moment? Can you do that for me?” Jack coaxes gently.

“Yeah, yeah, I can do that,” Mac responds, then his voice turns muffled, distant, “He wants to talk to you?”

A new voice, female and hesitant, comes on the line, “Hello?”

“Hi, ma’am, sorry to bother you but could you tell me your name?” Jack asks politely.

“Angela?” she replies.

Jack smiles, needing to sound as pleasant as possible so as not to spook her; she’s his only link to Mac. “Hello, Angela. My name’s Jack and that blond kid you gave your phone to is Mac. He’s a very, very,  _very_ good friend of mine who got himself into a really bad situation.”

“He didn’t want us to call the cops or the EMTs,” she says, sounding unsure and rather suspicious.

“Don’t worry, Angela, I promise you, I swear on my life he’s in no trouble with the law, I swear,” he reiterates firmly. “It’s just… complicated. Can you tell me where you are right now?”

She tells him and Jack relays it to Matty who’s listening in anxiously. Then, while still on the phone, he rushes back inside, and waving Cage over, he throws her his car keys and mouths, “You drive.” Together, they head out while Matty starts yelling orders in the background.

“Angela, could you tell me what’s my friend’s status? Is he alright?” Jack asks as he runs towards his car.

Cage guns the engine and when he tells her the address, she stomps on the gas pedal and the car shoots out of the driveway, tires squealing.

Angela’s response is hesitant. “He seems…  _off_. He almost passed out. I think he’s either on drugs or he hit his head real bad. He really should see a doctor.”

Her answer confirms Jack’s suspicion. Mac’s slurred speech, the uncertain tone of his voice, everything about him seemed…  _off_ to Jack, too. And he agrees with Angela, Mac really  _should_ see a doctor but considering who’s after him, being around strangers is the last thing Mac needs right now.

“And I  _will_ take him to a doctor, I promise you that, I’ll take care of him but in his…  _situation_ ,” Jack really doesn’t know how else to describe the mess Mac found himself in without breaking a bunch of rules that shall not be broken or else, “it would be wiser to take him to someone he knows and trusts.”

“Oh,” Angela replies softly and Jack realizes she probably arrived at the wrong -  _hopefully_ wrong! - conclusion when she adds in a more sympathetic, kind voice, “I see.” He decides not to correct her, considering she’s not  _that_ far off.

“Look, Angela, can you stay with Mac until I come get him? I’ll be there in–” He looks at Cage.

“Ten minutes,” Cage replies without taking her eyes off the road.

“Ten minutes, tops,” Jack says.

“Alright, I’ll stay with him,” Angela replies, her stance much firmer now that she thinks she knows what’s going on.

“Thank you! And, please, don’t let anyone take him away,” Jack asks anxiously. “Not a cop, not an EMT, no one. I’m coming, I’m on my way. Keep an eye on him for me, okay?”

“Okay,” she promises.

“Thanks, I really appreciate it, Angela, more than you’ll ever know,” he tells her and he means it. “Can you give him the phone back now, please?”

There’s some crackling on the line and Angela’s telling Mac that Jack wants to speak with him. Then Mac says, “Jack?”

Hearing Mac’s voice again, Jack feels so relieved he could actually cry. “Yeah, buddy, yeah. I’m on my way. I’ll be there in five. You stay put, don’t move from the spot, you hear me? I’ll be right there!”

“Okay…”

Jack stays on the line with Mac till the very end, hanging up only once Cage takes a hard turn, cutting off several cars whose drivers start honk their horns  and yell obscenities at them, and the car comes to a sliding stop at the curb, tires squealing again.

“Mac!” Jack yells as he jumps out of car and quickly crosses the sidewalk to where Mac’s sitting on the pavement, looking pale and disoriented. There’s a black woman there with him - Angela, probably - who moves out of the way, then, to let Jack get to his friend.

“Jack?” Mac says, blinking up at him, and reaches out with one hand.

Dropping to his knees, Jack grabs Mac’s hand, then he pulls Mac into his arms, hugging him tight. And Mac, who’s not prone to displays of physical affection in public under normal circumstances, hugs him back. For the first time since Jack found Murdoc’s message on the porch, he can breathe. Mac’s back, he’s safe.

While Cage talks to Angela in the background, Jack pulls back, and holding Mac by the shoulders, he gives him the once over. “You okay?” he asks as he takes in Mac’s paleness and the traces of blood on his right forearm. Other than that, he seems alright, though.

Mac nods, squinting a little. Obviously, he has a hard time focusing. “He drugged me. Murdoc. He… with something. I can’t really think. He said he wanted to-to… slow me down,” he explains, sounding upset.

Jack forces a smile. It’s either that or smashing something to pieces, he’s so furious with that psycho. “Like anything could do that. You’ll always be light years ahead of us, kid, even drugged up to your gills.”

“But we should still take him in for a check-up,” Cage says, standing over them.

Jack looks around quickly. “Angela?” he asks.

“Gone. I fed her a tale about an abusive ex who can’t take a no for an answer,” she explains. “More believable than the one about the crazy obsessed assassin with a grudge.”

“True,” Jack says and nods at her gratefully.

“Cage,” Mac greets her, staring up at her with hazy eyes.

She smiles down at him. “Hey, Mac. Good to see you.”

Gripping Mac’s hand, Jack helps his friend to his feet and together with Cage they prop him up from both sides when Mac’s knees threaten to give out. Yeah, he really needs to see a doctor.

“Come on, kid. How about we take you back to the headquarters and let the doctors there have a poke at you, what do you say?” Jack says kindly as they lead Mac towards the car, supporting him as he stumbles along…

… both too focused on their friend to notice the man watching them from across the street with a satisfied smirk on his face.


End file.
